It has been a poor series to date for the top-order batsmen of both countries.
If Joe Root reaches 65 today, it will be the highest score by anybody in the
top four of England or Australia.

But unproductive starts have been more of a problem for Australia. England have had Ian Bell at No 5 to anchor their innings, whereas Australia’s batting — except for their last-wicket pairs — has been as short of solidity as an ice cream in this heatwave.

Australia’s lack of a consistent opening batsman is also a long-standing one, and a primary reason for their fall from grace. Conan Doyle’s mysteries centred on Sherlock Holmes. This one centres on Watson — not Dr Watson but DRS Watson as he could be called after his latest recourse to the referral system.

How can such a brilliant stroke-player as Shane Watson — a master, nothing less, of the pull and front-foot drive — be so incapable of building an innings that he has only twice reached 60 in Tests since 2010?

This problem is aggravated, not alleviated, by his stroke-playing brilliance. If Watson scored his 30s and 40s slowly, like a traditional New Zealand opening batsman, he would hang around long enough to build his side’s innings. By the time he had done his stuff, his side would have at least 100 on the board, and the ball would be ageing and softening.

Instead, Watson flies to his average Test score of 35. He dispatches half-a-dozen balls to the boundary, so that often the opening bowlers are still in their first spell by the time he has been dismissed — lbw, front foot planted, or else slicing a drive to slip.

Thus Watson has the same effect on Australia as caffeine. He is not so much a double-shot as a six-shot latte, who stimulates his team-mates until they reach a high, and think batting is simple, then gets out and leaves them deflated.

Mickey Arthur, the former coach, is said to have called Watson “a cancer” in the Australian team because of his selfishness. He is the son of an air force pilot — a type renowned for acting as individuals — and seems to plot his own course, brief and glorious; but, above all, brief.

It is a far cry from predecessors like Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Simon Katich, who sweated buckets for the Australian team as opening batsmen. They could score quickly, but if conditions were harsh they would put on a hair-shirt, limit their strokes, and grind opposing bowlers into the dirt.

Katich is still churning out runs for Lancashire as a dogged left-hander, after being dropped by Australia at the end of 2010, a year in which he had already hit two centuries and four other scores of 79 or more. Between ‘Katto’ and ‘Watto’ the difference in time span is short, and in cricket culture immense.

In any other age of Australian cricket over the last century, Watson would have been dropped long ago for his failure to convert starts into substance. But in the T20 era he has been able to tease with twenties and thirties and retain his place, because his contemporaries have much the same defect, and they have not been able to bowl as a fourth seamer.

Phil Hughes? This prodigy — the youngest batsman to score two centuries in a Test, aged 20 — has yet to change his method sufficiently to cope with international cricket. Like so many promising English batsmen of the bad old days, he was selected when he should not have been, and will not be selected when he has developed his game and should be.

Usman Khawaja? A lost soul on the fringes, both in the field and dressing-room. David Warner? Well, he doesn’t have to return to England from the Australia A tour of southern Africa as a reformed personality: scores of six and 11 against Zimbabwe A are surely enough for him to regain his Test place.

It is the same picture in Australia’s domestic cricket: lots of good batsmen who can score quick 30s and attract IPL franchises, but no very good batsmen who can bat all day. The Sheffield Shield has been dumbed down like the county championship before splitting into two divisions, into low-scoring scraps on seaming pitches.

Only two batsmen scored as many as three centuries in the last Sheffield Shield, neither a nipper. And in the wake of Ricky Ponting and Chris Rogers, the four batsmen who hit two centuries included Phil Hughes and Brad Haddin.

So not much incentive for Watson to bat like his predecessors, discipline his shot-selection, think more of taking quick singles, or rotate the strike. If he keeps blazing away, however briefly, he is sure of his place for this series, and his IPL value will no doubt increase.